You have probably heard that you should clean any open wound to prevent infection. It was good advice. And today, its even more important than ever. The bugs that cause a lot of these infections, methicillin resistant staph aureus (MRSA), are often resistant to drugs. Worse, they are more prevalent and contagious. If you have an open wound in a hospital, your risk of infection is sky high these days. And all your doctor will do to treat it is throw more drugs at it.
Almost all infections caused by MRSA begin in the skin. In the past, it was rare for an infection to occur in the absence of a cut or injury. In todays world of chemicals, terrible nutrition, and diabetes, more and more tissue infections seem to occur even without a break. The bugs are getting more invasive as our natural defenses collapse.
Fortunately, theres a better way to treat these stubborn infections. In fact, its the most effective treatment for any skin infection. Its simple, painless, effective, and costs nothing. What could be so wonderful?
Heat. That is it. Nothing more. All you have to do to fight any skin infection is apply constant heat.
We have known about the remarkable properties of heat since the beginning of recorded medicine. Hippocrates wrote that wounds love warmth … and suffer from the opposite. Heres why:
The ability of bacteria to successfully infect your tissues is inversely proportionate to the blood flow. As blood flow decreases, your infection risk increases — and vice versa. Why? In order to fight infection and heal your body, your immune system requires a lot of energy. That energy comes from oxygen. When faced with an invading army of bacteria, your white blood cells may consume 100 times the amount of oxygen they do at rest.
So how can you get them the extra oxygen they need? Well, you might think breathing oxygen through a mask would help. But it wont. You get very little additional oxygen to your infection-fighting white cells this way. Exercising while breathing the oxygen (EWOT) would help a little. Intravenous hydrogen peroxide will also help.
But simple heat can stop just about any surface infection. And a recent study proves it.
This study was conducted because of a survey of San Francisco surgeons. About half thought that heat would not effectively fight a serious infection in the subcutaneous tissue (the soft tissue right below the level of your skin). The other half thought that it would. So, two physician authors set out to scientifically prove who was right.
The researchers used instruments to precisely measure temperature and oxygen tension in subcutaneous tissue in eight patients. They treated these patients with nothing more than a hot pack. You know that your internal body temperature should be around 98.6 degrees F.
With breathing supplemental oxygen, and at an average tissue temperature of 93.2 degrees F, their subcutaneous tissue oxygen tension was 47.7 mmHg. After applying heat for an average of 42 minutes, the tissue temperature rose to 100.4 degrees F. And, oxygen tension jumped to an average of 87.2 mmHg. The average oxygen pressure almost doubled! They noted that in animal studies, blood flow increases from four to six times at 109.4 degrees for up to two hours. That increase in blood flow is whats increasing the oxygen delivery.
So if you see the telltale signs of infection — red, swollen, and painful tissue — quickly apply heat using a heat pack. Apply as much heat to the area as you can comfortably tolerate. If the infection is deep, the heat may not work as well. But it will still help. Any additional blood flow to the region will be beneficial. It can limit the damage.
Finally, if you do contract MRSA or any stubborn infection, demand hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Most hospitals have HBO chambers, but will be hesitant to use them for infection. But it works. Its long been used to fight osteomyelitis (bone infection). Circulation to bone is sluggish. So doctors do not hesitate to use HBO to assist white blood cells in bone. But strangely, they would not use it for other infections. Its not proven, they would say.
Of course it was not proven. No one studied the obvious. And why? Because Big Pharmas profits come from peddling drugs, not oxygen. Its amazing that doctors will experiment with FDA-approved petrochemicals but not with God-made oxygen.
Now, with the MRSA and other infection epidemics, it has become far easier to get physicians to use HBO. However, if you jump on a skin infection with heat immediately, you might just save yourself from needing HBO or any other high-tech therapy.
Ref: Archives of Surgery, February 1987.